German Unexamined Application DE 101 54 843 discloses a method and an apparatus for labeling specimen slides for microtomed tissue samples. The data applied onto the histological cassettes are sensed upon insertion into the microtome. Associated with the microtome is a printer to which the data read in the microtome are transferred. Only those specimen slides that correspond to the tissue sample clamped in the microtome are then printed.